A hot Finn dip on cold Mont Blanc

27/08/2010

Our Scandinavian cousins across the sea have always had a reputation for being hardy and enjoying extremes of temperature, epitomised in their love of enjoying a steamy sauna session before plunging themselves into artic rivers. Now, one group of four men from Finland can claim to have climbed Mt. Blanc and set up a portable sauna at its summit.

The mountaineers journeyed up the mountain in darkness so that they could arrive at its peak before setting up the sauna, which was composed of a tent and specially designed wood-fire oven that could work at high altitudes, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Then, once the apparatus had been assembled, the men stripped off and enjoyed bathing in extremely hot temperatures, looking out over the freezing panorama.

'The sauna got so hot that it felt quite refreshing to wash in the snow at -5C outside, said Kari Härkönen, one of the mountaineers who took part.'

Move over Extreme Ironing, this is Extreme Sauna-building at its best.